Parking problems

Published:11:02Monday 27 February 2012

It was interesting to read the two letters in the Observer regarding the parking problems in Chichester.

I can sympathise with S Soal who obviously lives near to St Richard’s Hospital. I live in Little Breach, another family residential estate where workers and students are continually parking their cars all day during the week. They park outside residents’ houses with no consideration whatsoever for the people who live there. They do not allow for the fact that family and friends may be wanting to visit our homes.

We also get people who obviously have a similar view and attitude to car park charges while shopping in Chichester as E Oliver of Waterlooville. They park up during the day, unload their shopping bags or trolleys and wander off into the town.

As parking is very limited later in the day, they will quite often park on the bus stops and prevent the bus being able to pull in properly to the curb, therefore making it more difficult for the older travellers to get on and off.

A lot of people are also double parking, driving onto the kerbs and using the grass verges as S Soal mentions, the verges are now deep muddy ruts. The double parking causes problems for the buses and refuse vehicles and any other large lorries doing deliveries, and it makes it impossible for two cars to pass together.

It won’t be long before there is an accident where these cars are parked. I only hope that it doesn’t involve any vehicles or families that are collecting children from the two nearby schools as it does get rather congested in this area at that time of the day.

The sooner Chichester District Council and West Sussex Parking strategy department start tackling this problem properly, the better. They keep saying that they are doing surveys and will be having consultations, but there are over 170 houses on Little Breach and only 30 to 40 homes had survey forms sent to them. So how can this give a true reflection of the feelings of the residents on this estate?

Controlled parking was brought into the Somerstown Estate a few years ago when this parking problem was starting to cause serious problems. It obviously works there, but only pushes people into parking on other roads nearby. The residents on these estates now urgently need some help and some positive action, especially with possible increases in the car park charges coming in and the Sunday parking charges being introduced.